Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad ed. by Timothy D. Walker

Abstract

Reviewed by: Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad ed. by Timothy D. Walker Viola Franziska Müller Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad. Edited by Timothy D. Walker. (Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2021. Pp. xvi, 231. Paper, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-62534-593-9; cloth, $90.00, ISBN 978-1-62534-593-6.) Slave flight is firmly back at the center of scholarly attention, and while publications on overland escapes have multiplied over the past several years, Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad makes a long overdue intervention by bringing the maritime world onto the stage. Timothy D. Walker's introduction and historiographical essay in chapter 1 both convincingly argue that, over time, we have come to disregard the importance of sea and water travel in U.S. history. This neglect has in turn contributed to the overlooking of maritime routes in the study of the Underground Railroad. Yet as this book makes clear, escapes by boat and ship were frequent in the antebellum era, and they firmly connected southern regions of departure with northern zones of refuge. One crucial observation, which runs through all the chapters, is the centrality of work. Enslaved and free Black people—especially men—often performed jobs and held positions in the maritime economy that enabled them to strategically build networks, broaden their horizons, and eventually plan and conduct escapes, be it for themselves or as allies of freedom seekers. To be sure, many of the networks of ferrymen, sailors, and stevedores discussed in this book are truly impressive. But the chapters do more than just illustrate how people used the context of work to facilitate escapes. They place Black Americans at the heart of antebellum maritime and economic life in both the southern and the northern states. As the backbone of a regional and national economy, Black maritime laborers encumbered the attempts of southern slaveholders to keep them confined. This heavy commercial dependence on Black maritime workers prevented large-scale restrictions on their mobility, as strict slave badge regulations, limits on hiring out, and increased surveillance of ports would by definition hamper economic activity. And so, the execution of these laws—practically the sole tool slaveholders had at their disposal—remained frequently ineffective. Over time, the growing volume of trade [End Page 771] increased the number of ships leaving southern ports, creating more opportunities for enslaved people to abscond. Contributions by Michael D. Thompson, David S. Cecelski, Cassandra Newby-Alexander, and Cheryl Janifer LaRoche explore slave flight from Charleston, coastal North Carolina, Norfolk, and Maryland, respectively. The authors do an excellent job of explaining the geographic characteristics of waterways and the sea and show that, no matter how challenging or peculiar the natural and social environment, many enslaved people found ways to slip through cracks in surveillance and onto boats and vessels that carried them out of slavery. Halfway through the book, the perspective shifts to the North, as Mirelle Luecke, Elysa Engelman, Kathryn Grover, and Len Travers focus on New York City, Connecticut, eastern Massachusetts, and New Bedford, as either destinations or places of transit. As these contributors vividly demonstrate, the maritime economy gave rise to sizable Black communities that fought on the front lines to rescue enslaved people and protect them from reenslavement. After all, despite the involvement of allies from all racial and social backgrounds, African Americans were the most important agents in these escapes. Collectively, Sailing to Freedom is an account of Black self-determination and successful resistance, which is truly remarkable since it also shows that obstacles, risks, and mutual suspicion among freedom seekers and their allies loomed large along these maritime routes. With a geographic focus on the East Coast, all cases presented deal with escapes to the northern states and Canada. Other routes of maritime flight, for instance, into the Caribbean or Mexico, are not covered in detail. Strictly speaking, the temporal scope also goes beyond the Underground Railroad, with some chapters discussing informal networks in the early republic. The contributions are first-rate. Drawing on personal accounts wherever possible and usually taking the perspective of the freedom seekers, each essay keeps lived experiences...